Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock

There are a lot of people out there who dream of being rock stars. Activision-Blizzard could never actually make that dream come true, but it has helped to make it a lot more vivid.

The clunky sound of plastic Fisher Price guitars has become the fanfare for a golden age of rhythm-based games, and the appearance of a new Guitar Hero is always cause for celebration.

At least, that’s how things used to be. It’s difficult to tell whether Glu Mobile's Guitar Hero game is the group’s difficult tenth album or a negligible B-side. Either way, the franchise has seen better days.

In a sync hole

The aim remains to match the rhythm of the music with the correct button-presses, this time making use of the Xperia Play’s joypad.

While this port retains a lot of the franchise's compulsiveness early on, it quickly becomes stale thanks to a stack of problems. The low quality MIDI sound files are simply annoying to listen to, and they don’t always sync up with the button-presses, leaving your sense of rhythm reeling. MP3 versions can be downloaded fairly quickly, but even then the quality is far too tinny and muffled.

Still, a lot of your attitude towards the game will come down to how fond you are of the songs included. Sadly, it doesn’t feel like a general appeal is even possible with only 15 mis-matched tracks from artists ranging from Aerosmith to Sum 41. And, of all the Rolling Stones songs possible, why include Stray Cat Blues?

Chord is in session

The music isn’t the only thing that will trip you up. Button-presses are responsive, but the way Glu Mobile has gone about multi-note strumming is confusing, leading to a lot of missed notes.

For instance, to hit a red and yellow note at the same time you have to spread your thumb over the Square button (for red) and the X button (for yellow) and press them simultaneously. To combat this clumsiness, the right button on the D-pad has also been designated to red notes. But trying to use a combination of this and the Square button will just end up confusing you even more.

Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock does have the bones of a decent rhythm game, and on the higher difficulty it can present a refreshing challenge. But thanks to poor quality sound and iffy controls, it ends up coming across as a tribute act, rather than the real thing.